Alternatives of Alternatives

Co-presented by Artists' Television Access, Arthur Magazine, and Saturnalia

*with artists Ira Cohen and Andrew Wilson in attendance*

Alternatives of Alternatives introduces film and video works that focus on "alternative" lifestyles or subcultures (new age gnostics, new media-art zealots, cryptozoologists, revolutionary theatre collectives) with critical eyes and ears, presented in an "alternative" cinematic structure. One purpose of the screening is to investigate the way "alternative" forces arrange and define themselves in our world, another is to present works in which form meets content in a synthesis beyond the industry standard for documentary.

PARADISE NOW: The Living Theatre in Amerika (1969) a film by Marty Topp, produced by Ira Cohen for Universal Mutant

In 1968 The Living Theatre, led by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, triumphantly returned to America from years of self-imposed exile in Europe with their theatrical breakthrough Paradise Now. The play introduces the practice of collective creation, dissolving the boundaries of human interactions and forging a harmony between the actors and audience. Of this process, Julian Beck writes, "Collective creation is the secret weapon of the people.. This play is a voyage from the many to the one and from the one to the many. It's a spiritual voyage and a political voyage, a voyage for the actors and the spectators. The play is a vertical ascent toward permanent revolution, leading to revolutionary action here and now. The revolution of which the play speaks is the beautiful, non-violent, anarchist revolution. The purpose of the play is to lead to a state of being in which non-violent revolutionary action is possible."

The result of this shared voyage is the spontaneous creation of a temporary anarchist collective- free from the enslavements of war, violence, the State, money and the self.

FOLK / TAX (2007) a video by Andrew Wilson - 32 min.

The purpose of this video was to engage in the creative production of a map in order to understand and then expose the ways in which certain New Age Gnostic entrepreneurial forces arrange themselves in our world. The classificatory system produced for this semiotic regime is esoteric in its nature, as the classifications arose from the gradual analysis of the content. Concepts are organized to call attention to specific information, while the work also serves to blur the conventional distinction between a folk taxonomy and a scientific/academic taxonomy.

Blobsquatch: In the Expanded Field (2007) a video by Carl Diehl - 11 min. 30 sec.

Cryptozoology, a field known for its inquiries into unknown creatures like the Bigfoot and Lock Ness Monster, constitutes a challenge to exclusive hierarchies of knowledge and established scientific authority by presenting alternative theories and new taxonomic models. While many Bigfoot aficionados have dismissed Blobsquatches (photos too blurry to be discernible as Sasquatches) as impediments to serious cryptozoological research, this densely packed document speculates on another understanding of the blobsquatch. Under the panopticonfident gaze of a Google-crazed world, the Blobsquatch personifies noise, is a provocative counter-sight to the over-exposed Sasquatch, and simultaneously challenges and perpetuates alternative thought processes.